Russian authorities are investigating a reclusive Islamic sect said to have lived in subterranean burrows without electricity for 10 years. Officials have taken some 20 children away from the group in a case that pits religious freedom against wider social values.

Taliban militants in suicide belts on Wednesday attacked a Pakistani air base, where some of the country's nuclear weapons may possibly be kept. The home-turf assault comes as Pakistani forces prepare an operation in tribal areas and shows how militants remain on the offensive, able to attack the military even where it's most secure. NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from Islamabad.

The diplomatic duel over Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange intensified with Britain and Ecuador battling over his future. Ecuador says it will give Assange asylum. For now, he's holed up in Ecuador's London embassy. Britain says it wants Assange extradited to Sweden, where he's wanted over a rape allegation.